


drink with me to days gone by

by liionne



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Growing Apart, M/M, Slow Burn, bildungsroman, kind of, sort of??, tags will be added as i go!, teenagers to adults basically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 13:30:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4481033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky comes racing through the school double doors, skidding along the corridor to grab Steve by the shoulders. His grin was as wild as his eyes, as he panted, trying to catch his breath. “Stevie! Stevie, guess what?” He doesn’t give Steve a chance to respond. “I’m being adopted!”</p><p>And that’s where it all begins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	drink with me to days gone by

**Author's Note:**

> I beta'd this myself, so it may well still have mistakes- feel free to point them out! And I do actually have a plan for where this story is going, so hopefully it won't end up being too long!

Steve stands by his locker, and fidgets. Bucky is never late – hell, Bucky is usually _early_. The orphanage down the street usually turfs them out ridiculously early, and of course, the school is only about 10 minutes away. Usually, when Steve walks in with ten minutes to spare, Bucky is sitting against the lockers, reading a battered paperback or text book or something. But today, he wasn’t there, and with the bell about to go, he _still_ isn’t here.

He doesn’t even have anyone else to stand with. They are very much just the two of them, a duo and nothing more. Steve shuffles, looking around again. Bucky’ll be here. He has to be.

And sure enough, a split second before the bell for first period rings, Bucky comes racing through the school double doors, skidding along the corridor to grab Steve by the shoulders. His grin was as wild as his eyes, as he panted, trying to catch his breath. “ _Stevie!_ Stevie, guess what?” He doesn’t give Steve a chance to respond. “I’m being adopted!”

And that’s where it all begins.

~*~

“What’re they like?” Steve asks at lunch, to which Bucky shrugs.

“They seem nice enough.” He shrugs. “A little weird, but maybe that’s cause I’m older, or they’re older, I dunno.” He shoves a tater tot in his mouth. “And they’re rich as _balls_.”

Steve gives a small smile, lips twisting up slightly. He’s so happy for Bucky, unbelievably so. When Bucky’s parents first died in an accident when he was little, Steve wasn’t so sure he was gonna make it through it. And then when Rebecca was taken off him and adopted by some other family, quickly snapped up because she was only five, still little and cute, things got even worse. Bucky’s fine now, on the surface, but Steve knows it still hurts. He can see it. And he doesn’t want to see Bucky hurt.

But he also doesn’t want to _lose_ him.

“When do they come and pick you up?” He asks.

“In a month, if the trial goes well.” Bucky shrugs again. Steve nods solemnly, pushing his food around his place. A month until he loses Bucky. That’s not so bad, right? ”Nothing’s gonna change here, pal. We’ll always be best friends, til the end of the line.”

 _Til the end of the line._ It sounds like something out of some dumb rom com, but it does make Steve feel marginally better. “’Til the end of the line.” He agrees, and receives a grin wide enough to make everything okay.

~*~

Bucky’s trial is not long after. Steve walks into school on the Monday to find Bucky there, as usual, sitting with his back against the lockers and ready a non-fiction book about the Russian Tsars, or something. Steve smiles at the familiarity. “Hey.” He says. “How’s it going?”

Bucky had been taken over on Sunday, and on Sunday, he goes back to the orphanage. Bucky looks up and smiles, dog-earing the page and putting the book into his backpack. “Great! Their house is _huge_ , Stevie. It’s _enormous_. And they have a pool – a god damn pool! In their back yard! And they have the cutest dog – it’s a malamute or something, he’s called Peyton.”

Steve smiles, happy that Bucky is happy. “I’m glad you like it.”

Bucky tries to play nonchalant, and shrugs. “I’ve got another five days to go. We’ll see.”

Steve nods, but he knows that Bucky is going to end up living there. Steve isn’t sure he’s ever seen him this happy since before the accident, and whilst he knows it’s a good thing, he can’t help but feel a little bit sad. “Whatever, you big lug. Now c’mon, I wanna go to the library before first period.” Steve says, tugging Bucky to his feet.

~*~

Bucky moves in with the Pierces a month later.

Steve goes over to his house after school one night, about a week after Bucky moves in. They’re an older couple, both with greying hair, but they seem nice enough. Their house, as Bucky had said, is huge. His room alone is about the size of Steve’s own shitty two-bedroom apartment. He looks around at the Polaroid photographs and Nirvana posters on the wall, and he settles a little bit, into some of the softest pillows he’s ever had the opportunity to lean against.

He doesn’t stay for long; the dog sets off his allergies, and Bucky does nothing but worry the entire time. Steve tells him that the house and the dog and his new parents are amazing, and he leaves.

When he tells his ma, she gives a little nod, and leaves him to it. He doesn’t really want to talk about Bucky’s fancy new life anyway.

~*~

It takes another three weeks before Bucky trudges into school one day, late, a face like thunder and an attitude to match. Steve looks at him out of the corner of his eyes, and says, “What the hell happened to you?”

“Tell you at lunch.” Bucky mutters, and tries to focus on his French.

By lunch time, Steve is nervous. Did they give him up? Are they sending him back to the orphanage? Did they lose their fortune and now they’re out on the street? He doesn’t know, but he has a lot of speculations.

Bucky sits down opposite him, a sandwich, apple, and a bottle of chocolate milk on his tray, but he doesn’t touch any of them. Instead, he looks Steve dead in the eye, and says, “They’re sending me to private school.”

Steve chokes on his bottle of water, spluttering water everywhere, and he blinks. “What?”

“SHIELD Grammar, upstate. I come home every night, it ain’t a boarding school, but it ain’t Brooklyn High either.”

Steve stares. He knew this was going to happen, didn’t he? He _knew_ it. The past three weeks have been the calm before the storm but now the storm is raging around them, taking the roof off and rattling their foundations. Steve wants to laugh because he knew he was right, but he also thinks he wants to vomit. He’s not gonna see Bucky at school, he won’t be able to go over and see him. This is it.

The end of the line.

Bucky must see the thoughts racing through his head, the panic in his eyes, because he reaches across the table and takes Steve’s hand like there aren’t 700 other people in the cafeteria right now. “Stevie, we’re still gonna talk all the time. We can call each other, we can email. I’ll come over to your place all the time!”

“All the time.” Steve echoes.

“Exactly.” Bucky nods. “It’s gonna suck.” He says. “But I’ll see you every weekend, I promise.”

“When do you go?” Steve asks. He doesn’t want Bucky’s false promises now. The only friend he’s ever had, his best friend since he was three years old, is leaving him to go and get some fancy-ass education. He _knows_ this isn’t Bucky’s choice, but who else can he blame?

“I start on Monday.” Bucky murmurs. “They know the principal, so they got me enrolled straight away. No waiting for the new semester or anything.”

Steve nods woodenly. He forces a smile onto his face, and wonders whether it looks as fake as it is. “It’ll be good, Bucky. Better than this shit-fest.”

Bucky nods a little, and tears off the corner of his sandwich. “You have a point there.” He says, popping it into his mouth and looking away to the window, the conversation evidently well and truly over.

~*~

Bucky leaves. They do talk on the phone, but Steve can’t really afford to talk for very long. On top of the food bills and the utility bills, they can’t really afford to have too big of a phone bill in his house. His ma’s crappy wage can only buy them so much when they’ve paid off the rent for the month.

Bucky does come over the first weekend, to tell Steve all about it. He says it’s fancy, all of the teachers are doctors or professors, and they don’t just have regular subjects, oh no. They have subjects like astronomy, and Latin. Nothing like what Brooklyn High School offers. He says it’s all really clean and white, like it’s brand new, and Principal Fury is scary as hell.

 They spend half a day together, watching MTV and eating his ma’s cookies, and then Bucky says he has to go; his parents want him home for dinner. He hugs Steve, and he leaves. Steve tries not to cling to him as he does.

They talk on the phone again the next week, every so often. Bucky suggests maybe they start writing letters, because the postage fee is cheaper than a phone call, so Steve begins to write. He doesn’t see Bucky that weekend; he’s having a friend over from school, Maria. Steve understands. He still writes.

They write to each other for a few months, before the letters start to peter out. Steve doesn’t see Bucky anymore, doesn’t talk to him. He tries calling, but all he gets is the answering machine. He doesn’t leave a message, but instead hangs up, and accepts his ma’s embrace when it’s offered.

He had known, at some point, that he would lose Bucky. Bucky had been the only good thing in his life for thirteen years. Steve, frail and sickly, an asshole, a fighter, only ever had one friend.

And now, he doesn’t even have him.

**Author's Note:**

> I am in the business of looking for another beta - I do _have_ a beta, but I'm in an impatient butthole. If anyone is interested in being a beta for me, they can drop me a message at [my tumblr](http://achaiion.tumblr.com).
> 
> As usual, prompts, comments and questions are always welcome at my tumblr too!


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